"Sometimes a franchise just has a big, black mark over it and no amount of wishful thinking can turn the tide..."-Jaap Still

"Brilliant use of an instructional picture book."-Kyle in Newport News

"Does Met$tra have a gambling problem?"-Erik Love

"Hasta la vista baby. I throw up the white flag."-Joe

"I'm still a fan, but enough is enough."-Meet the Mets

"I watch the grass grow - it's more exciting."-David

"Freaking Chipper Jones. I HATE Freaking Chipper Jones."-Dave Murray

"Good God man, what have you done??!! You've released the genie from the bottle. I see the showers and toilets backing up at Shea, emergency landings at LGA, unusual tides in Flushing Bay, and when they break ground for the new stadium the construction gang will unearth and disturb some ancient Indian burial ground for unlucky and cursed members of the Iroquois nation...Blaspheme no more Metstradamus! You are tempting the fates!"-The Metmaster

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Keith Hernandez said at the head of tonight's game that last night (Wednesday) was the nadir of the season.

Keith failed to realize not only that nadir is much too fancy a word for me, but that a nadir is only as low as your next game, when you go to the hill with your ace and still lose.

So this is the nadir now, right? Sure it is. Until Friday.

So ... team, is it all right to boo now? Now that Ryan Howard is heating up, the Marlins (a team that makes less than Carlos Delgado and Luis Castillo) are steaming towards June in first place, and the Mets are closer to last place than they are to first place while everybody is calling last rites on you and you've given us no reason to believe otherwise, please do us all a favor and lay off the "boo hoo why are we being booed so much" rhetoric until you can get Larry Jones and Mark Teixeira out, or perhaps string together a few hits off of Odalis Perez, Tim Redding, and f***ing Jorge Campillo?

I think I know how we can salvage the season. Name Rickey Henderson as manager, bobby bonilla as third base coach. Mo vaughn as hitting coach. Albert belle as bench coach. Delgado should be captain. Oh and sign barry bonds and trade for Milton Bradley. I seriously think we would win more games and even if we didnt we'd get our moneys worth booing.

I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING last night, Metstra. How DARE THEY BLAME THE FANS FOR THIS PATHETIC LEVEL OF PLAY? Honestly, they're lucky they weren't booed more often last year; the only thing that saved them was the fact that we were essentially the de facto leaders of the division for about the entire year, and occasionally showed a spark of something other than complete and utter disinterest.

I said at the beginning of the year that I did not like this team. Boy, was I right. Of course, it's now regressed to "I hate this team," and I suppose that's MY fault, and that I'm not a REAL fan. I submit to the court of fandom that if you're a real Mets fan, there is simply NO WAY YOU CAN LIKE THIS TEAM, PERIOD. They are a disgrace to themselves and to the franchise.

I'm hoping that Pedro is the missing piece to this puzzle. I had a dream last night that Pedro came back, and brought Nelson de la Rosa with him, who Reyes was enamored with and actually listened to when he said not to swing at every first pitch. His return loosened up the clubhouse, and Pedro mowed through the league so badly, breaking Hershiser's streak, that they had to give him a Cy Young even though he missed 2 months. Santana, not to be outdone started pitching again like a true ace. The team became a living embodiment of the Al Bundy rule (for every bad thing that happens there's good one to balance it out, so we must be due for a whole bunch of good things) even Delgado, who sacrificed one of Pedro's cockfight chickens to Jobu in the locker room, allowing him to start handling inside fastballs again. All of the resulting goodwill allowed Willie to stop being so defensive and to loosen up a little a la Coughlin, and he and the media started to get along. Next year we get to open Citi Field, retire Piazza's # and hang a championship banner. All was right in Metsville.

Then I woke up, and had a splitting headache from all the glue I was sniffing, but it was nice while it lasted.

e, this bump in the road started mid June, last season. This is how it's going to be, I'm afraid, with the team we currently have. They'll have a run of 5 bad games, then we'll beat someone 3 games in a row and they'll want us to get our hopes up again.

But not me, boss. I refuse to get excited about any good games, I will listen on the radio, read Metstradamus, and practice the Heilman initiative. I will have the nicest garden on my block. The Mets won't have Katherine to kick around any more.

Fatso and The Village Idiot are on the FAN extolling the virtues of Wally Backman as a great Mets manager candidate. They don't think the Wilpons have the pelotas to pull that trigger. They agree that the Latin players would hate him, but he'd definitely light a fire under that team and Wally would practically work for free because he is so desperate to get back in the game.

my exaggeration above, I do think that Pedro is a missing piece to this puzzle. 1. He brings a positive energy to the dugout, something we've been missing since he left at the beginning of the season - remember how happy-go-lucky this team was this spring? 2. He has a knack for deflecting media attention on the negative, with his "daddy" comments and dwarves and whatnot. 3. He speaks spanish - I don't think this can be overrated. For as much as Wright has been trying to get people fired up, it just doesn't resonate the same way that it will from Pedro. 4. Do people think that firing Willie will magically fix things any more than having a consummate teammate back in the dugout?

Geoff, I'd love to believe that. In fact I believe the first part about getting rid of Willie not magically ending all the problems. But I can't think that having Pedro around will end all the problems either. I used to believe that it helped, and it does to a degree. But it didn't help last September.

And, just in case there has not been enough criticism in the comments section, I will add that I have been pretty disappointed with Brian Schneider's defensive skills - I know his hitting has been better than expected, but it seems like every game he makes a mental error, or has passed balls. I tried to make excuses for him, its true he had to adjust to new pitchers, but some of his errors have been non-pitch related, like not catching a foul pop up, or not being at the plate for a play just the other night. Maybe he has been infected with the same malaise/incompetence virus that seems to have gotten Luis Castillo. Anyway, those of you who were ecstatic about Schneider's acquisition just because his wife is so gorgeous (and you know who you are) probably don't mind he's no longer good defensively, as long as she's around. However, we female fans have no such consolation.